Five Points, Jacksonville, 1953

Here's an interesting photo from 1953, during the time of the Korean War, depicted in the TV show M*A*S*H. The picture shows the Five Points intersection & shopping district in Riverside. Decorated for Easter, the street sign reads "Five Points Shopping Center."

From this vantage point today, Five Points still looks somewhat similar, although the sign has been taken down. The Lovette’s grocery store on the right is now an antiques mall, but the supermarket-like doors are still there. The Texaco station is the site of a restaurant.

The Five Points business district is so named because five roads intersect near its southern end. It was still young when the photo was taken. The commercial area was mostly developed during Florida’s land boom of the 1920s. This was the same period when a couple of other historic shopping districts were largely established: the retail area in San Marco and the one in Avondale, along St. Johns Avenue.

During early 1900s, hunters had roamed over the Five Points area, and a stream flowed across the location of Park Street.